Keadilan president, Dr.Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is right when she said that while Bahasa Malaysia should be respected by all as the national language, the government should respect the human and constitutional right of the Chinese, Indian and other communities to learn and preserve their mother tongues.

Of course, the English language is important but to be an English chauvinist is no less dangerous than being an Islamist or Chinese, Indian or Malay chauvinists.

While it is not right to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state, it is equally wrong to attempt to turn a multiethnic Asian country into a Little Britain. I oppose both the Islamic and Anglo-Saxon Malaysia.

The English chauvinists have a mistaken notion that only by speaking and writing English could a country hope to advance. But they are wrong .

Look at China, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and South Korea. The people, while not rejecting English, also strive to preserve their national and ethnic identities by speaking and writing their own mother tongues and national language. These countries are certainly more advanced — technologically, scientifically and culturally — than Singapore and India.